Cast for two

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Calculating Heart Rate zone based on Lactate Threshold Heart Rate

I already investigated the issue of setting heart rate zones in blogpost "Setting Strava heart rate zones based on Lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR)". In the article "HOW TO FIND YOUR HEART RATE ZONES" all zones are defined along with the protocol to determine your lacatate threshold yourself:

  • Z1 < 81% of LTHR 
  • Z2  81% - 89% of LTHR
  • Z3 90% - 93% of LTHR
  • Z4 94%-99% of LTHR
  • Z5a 100%-102% of LTHR
  • Z5b 103%-106% of LTHR
  • Z5c > 106% of LTHR
The definition of the zones correspond to those found in Joe Friel's book "The cyclist trainings bible" at page 37 Table 4.5.

Based on a LTHR of 175bpm my zones would be:
  • Z1 Endurance: < 141 bpm
  • Z2 Moderate: 142 - 156 bpm
  • Z3 Tempo: 157 - 163 bpm
  • Z4 Threshold: 164 - 173 bpm
  • Z5a:  175 - 179 bpm
  • Z5b: 180 - 185 bpm
  • Z5c: 186 - 187 bpm